For the last two years, about 87 percent of Canadians had access to the Internet, a number that has since grown to 92.5 percent, according to Internet World Stats. That's ahead of the 87.4 percent in the United States, though keep in mind that Canada has only 10 percent of the US population.

But where should Canadians turn to get not just any broadband, but the fastest Internet service in the country? PCMag readers in the north tested their connections via PCMag's Speed Test, and we have the results.

All the tests in this story—15,890 of them—came in between Aug. 29, 2015 and Aug.22, 2016. Each consisted of results showing download speed and upload speed in Megabits per second (Mbps). We then turned to the full power of modern spreadsheets and applied our own formula: take 80 percent of the download speed and 20 percent of the upload, add them together, and get what we call the PCMag Internet Speed Index, a quick way for us to visualize and compare the ISPs—and determine the fastest ISP in a location or locations that have the fastest ISPs. (For more, read the full methodology from our Fastest ISPs US story.)

To be included, each ISP had to have a minimum of 100 tests. That means a lot of smaller and maybe faster ISPs didn't make the cut. But we didn't want to base results on a handful of tests we couldn't back up statistically.

Fastest ISPs in Canada

For the second year in a row, Bell Aliant of eastern Canada steals the speedy spotlight. Last year it had the best PCMag Speed Index on average of any national ISP in Canada with a 56.4; this year it eclipsed that number, shooting up to 81.8.

Bell Aliant launched its fiber-to-the-home (FttH) service in 2009 under the brand FibreOP. Now it's rebranding and expanding as "Fibe," with the promise to spend $2 billion over the next five years (the first billion this year alone), to make sure 3 million homes and businesses from Ontario to the Atlantic get the service. It sports speeds of 940Mbps download and 100Mbps up, and also includes 4K digital TV. Because it's owned by the same parent company, Fibe will also be the brand from Bell Canada.

Rogers Communications, the cable provider with the most Internet customers in the country (its users provided more Canadian Speed Tests to us than any other), went from a 41.0 last year to 55.7 this year. That's an excellent improvement that, had it not been up against Bell Aliant, would have put it solidly in the lead.

New on the top 10 this year are CIK Telecom and MTS Allstream. They displace TekSavvy and Distributel, which both saw improvements in their index scores, but not enough to stay on the top of the list.

By the way, MTS—Manitoba Telecom Services—sold its fiber-optic network (purchased in 2004) to a US company, Zayo, earlier this year; MTS itself, which does Internet, TV, and wireless connections, is in the process of being acquired by Bell Canada (which also owns Bell Aliant). The future company will probably be called Bell MTS, but our data is all still pegging the connections as "MTS Allstream." This future company will also probably use the Fibe brand for its FttH.

Few providers tend to drop their score in our survey year to year, but it happened to at least one major ISP this time: Shaw Communications dropped from 29.3 down to 20.3. That moved it from third place in 2015 to seventh this year.

WINNER: Fastest ISP in Canada

Bell AliantBCE owns Bell Canada, will soon own MTS, and also owns Bell Aliant—but it's only the latter that's crushing it with fiber (sorry, fibre) optic speeds that should make all other ISPs in Canada jealous. While mostly available in the Atlantic provinces, Bell Aliant's going to expand west into Quebec and Ontario with the new Fibe brand, which will hopefully give it more customers to test a super-high-speed pipe to the Internet.

Canadian Provinces With the Fastest Internet

Last year we only had results for eight out of the 10 Canadian provinces; this year, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland & Labrador users stepped up to make sure their provinces would represent. It's not surprising the more remote areas of the country or those with smaller populations—Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon—didn't make the list. (If you live there, take the test to help find the fastest in 2017!)

Like last year, it's the Atlantic area of the country leading in speed. While Nova Scotia was the location you wanted for high speed a year ago, with a 50.9, this year it dropped to third place despite a jump up to a 55.4 PCMag Speed Index. Nova Scotians with a Bell Aliant account get speeds around 81.0 on our index.

In second place is Newfoundland & Labrador, the eastern-most province. The majority of the population—92 percent—actually live on the island of Newfoundland. That population also enjoys some excellent Internet: the province's index score is 69.2—they get it mainly from a mix of services from Bell Aliant and Rogers, though we didn't get enough response from either in the province to show here.

But the top province, hands down, this year, is New Brunswick. Last year it was in second at 48.9; this year it's up to 84.5. That's because Bell Aliant alone in that province earned a stunning index of 107.3.

Ontario, the most populated province by far, managed to squeak into fourth place with 33.3; it's led by the presence of Rogers (with its HQ in Toronto), earning a 55.8 index. After that, the scores drop but all remain at 19.0 or higher, which isn't bad at all.

Again, here's the breakdown of fastest ISPs in each province:

New Brunswick: Bell Aliant—107.3

Nova Scotia: Bell Aliant—81.0

Ontario: Rogers—55.8

Quebec: Bell Canada—38.8

Saskatchewan: SaskTel—12.1

Alberta: Shaw—21.8

Manitoba: Shaw—27.7

British Columbia: Telus—18.4

Canadian Cities With the Fastest Internet

Few can (or probably should) pick where they live based on Internet speed. If you can and do, we hope you like the Atlantic Ocean, because you're moving to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It is, for the second year in a row, the Canadian city with the fastest average Internet speed—likely thanks to Bell Aliant connections. That said, last year it had a whooping PCMag Speed Index of 186.1, but his year, it didn't even manage half that score, at 83.8. But that's still well ahead of the other cities on the list.

If you think you'll settle for the second fastest city, you'll simply be moving across the Bedford Basin into Halifax. In fact, Dartmouth and Halifax are part of the same municipality. And while it didn't make the top 10 last year, it's darted right to the No. 2 slot with an index of 57.1.

The remainder of the top 10 cities for speed range from a high of 48.4 down to 36.6—and every single one is in Ontario.

If you're not into those towns, here's a quick look at the major cities in the country, with their PCMag Speed Index, as well as the index of the top ISP in each location. Note that only one of these cities below made our top 10 last year, and that's Calgary, Alberta, which dropped from a 35.8 down to 20.9 this year.

Toronto, ON—34.8 (Rogers Cable—55.2)

Montreal, QC—28.7 (Bell Canada—25.4)

Ottawa, ON—32.0 (Rogers Cable—44.3)

Halifax, NS—57.1 (Bell Aliant—71.8)

Winnipeg, MB—21.2 (Shaw Communications—28.5)

Edmonton, AB—20.1 (Shaw Communications—23.1)

Calgary, AB—20.9 (Shaw Communications—21.0)

Keep in mind, it's entirely possible your much faster ISP is present in one of these cities but didn't make our results—we have to have a certain number of tests to include them. You can read more about it in the full methodology in our Fastest ISP 2016 for the USA.

Read More

About the Author

Eric narrowly averted a career in food service when he began in tech publishing at Ziff-Davis over 25 years ago. He was on the founding staff of Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine (all defunct, and it's not his fault). He's the author of two novels, BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale"--Publishers' Weekly) an... See Full Bio

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.